#kotlc rewrite where the only thing changed is sophie gets assigned two bodyguards at the end of book 1

[bookwyrminspiration]

Hello it’s mossy back with another bodyguard ask

I’ve been thinking about this ever since I read the books a few years ago:

Do the bodyguards eat?? Or sleep?? We only ever see them eat once and it was when Sophie came back to havenfield in flashback, and we’ve only ever seen Sandor sleep in the earlier books when Sophie said that he would fall asleep in her history class

Do they need sleep?? Do they need to eat?? Are they just severely overworked? And if they are overworked what does that entail?

Hope you’ve had a good week 👾

Mossy! I've had this exact question in the earlier books in regards to Sandor, especially because of that one scene where Edaline offers him a day off and he declines it, saying that Sophie's needs his protection now more than ever.

So that shows that they can have time off at the very least. But there's also the question of sleeping and eating. Eating I think is fairly simple, they eat when Sophie eats. Her schedule is their schedule, so unless there's some other situation, it seems reasonable that they'll just be part of Sophie's family's meals, though they may not eat the elven food or at the table with them and instead have something else prepared for themselves and be off to the side. Near enough to protect her if something happens but far enough away to give a sense of normalcy, you know?

Sleeping is easy if we're looking at after Flashback when Sophie's got a whopping five people assigned to her, because they can work in shifts. That way, they can take a break and sleep/do whatever else they need to without leaving Sophie unattended, and in the event of an emergency can be awoken to join the rest of the bodyguards.

Prior to that is where I'm assuming plot convenience comes through and we just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ away any questions because those details aren't important. Because when it's just Sandor, when does he get time off? He's shown to be guarding her through the night and to be awake at least all the times when she's awake (except for that one class), and as an insomniac that is often! He can't be protecting her 24/7 because he also has needs, but with so many other plot things happening it gets swept under the table as a "don't worry about this it just works" thing. Which is fine! Totally understandable and only leads to questions when we really focus on it

At least, that's how I regard it. I did try and find some sources from real-life bodyguards to see what they do (and found out they don't like to be called bodyguards) but it seems like in the event someone needs 24/7 supervision they're high profile enough to require multiple bodyguards, and otherwise they would just be employed for events or something. So we could say that Sophie's been in need of more bodyguards since Sandor was first introduced, and perhaps he was the only one for the sake of simplicity and not having so many characters.

that's less of an in-canon reason, but I think it plays a part!

(also thank you my week is going fine so far <33)

#kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #kotlc bodyguards #quil's queries #mossy nonsie #the-not-deer #either that or sandor is hopped up on caffeine for six books straight #or the goblin equivalent #he's too cool for sleep #but so far the only species we've confirmed doesn't really need sleep in the gnomes #but everyone else apparently sleeps normally. as far as we know #kotlc rewrite where the only thing changed is sophie gets assigned two bodyguards at the end of book 1 #it can't be grizel tho because then there aren't the fun shipping things from a distance parallel with sophie and fitz